The Bees visited an artisan chocolate factory, a client of the firm.
By Laurence Ferra-Gaudenèche, executive assistant at Fifty Bees, and Claire Le Meur, CEO at Blue Bees. When you walk into the shop of the Chocolaterie Janin, which the Bees are honoured and delighted to support on a daily basis, your eyes light up. The flavours, the aromas, the colours, the shapes, the names of the confections... Everything invites you to dream and indulge. It's simple: you want to try everything!
And we certainly didn't hold back... Since 1901, the Chocolaterie Janin, located in Lyon's 3rd arrondissement, has developed a unique know-how in chocolate making... It is this incredible story that Cyrille and Chrystelle Boissie took the time to share with us, through a tour of their remarkable chocolate factory. Here, all chocolates are made on site according to recipes that have remained unchanged for 40 years.
Naturally, since taking over the chocolate factory in 2004 with his brother, Cyrille has created new varieties of chocolate but has also stayed true to tradition. That is precisely what makes the difference. At Janin, products are crafted by hand using traditional methods - including the meticulous brushing of chocolates to remove traces of starch after moulding. The chocolate comes mainly from Africa, notably Ivory Coast.
Coffee, almonds and hazelnuts are roasted separately in the roaster before being mixed with sugar then refined with a know-how passed down through generations and machines dating, for the oldest, from the company's founding... Because the chocolate factory is above all a family story. In 1962, Cyrille's father was a worker at the chocolate factory: he carried cocoa sacks, before buying the business in 1982. And for Cyrille, working with his father has been self-evident since childhood.
Holder of a BEP... in accounting, he joined the chocolate factory in 1990, at the age of 19, and never left, as he took over the business in turn! Then Chrystelle joined him in 2011, after the departure of Cyrille's brother, initially to lend a hand before working full-time at the factory... and also never leaving, with the greatest pleasure.
She particularly excels in making nougat. Today it is their children who come to lend a hand (with the chocolate!) to help prepare for busy periods like Christmas or Easter, although none of them currently plans to take over the business. The chocolate varieties are indeed numerous and there is plenty to do in terms of manufacturing processes: cutting, coating, production, packaging... Because while originally the chocolate factory offered only 4 varieties of chocolate, Janin now offers more than twenty specialities to chocolate lovers and up to 60 different chocolate bonbons at Christmas: pralines, ganaches worked by hand and whipped into Chantilly, marzipan, moulded products like cream balls, liqueur chocolates, papillotes (foil-wrapped chocolate sweets, a Lyon tradition).
Regarding papillotes, which are wrapped one by one by hand at the factory, you will have to wait until next Christmas to taste this confection, born around 1790 in Lyon, on rue du Bat d'Argent, at the confectioner Papillot... Easter is now fast approaching! This year again, you will have the pleasure of discovering a huge chocolate egg in the window - a delicate operation requiring great dexterity. Do not hesitate to push open the door of the chocolate factory to treat yourself and rediscover your inner child.
We, for one, will certainly be there!